tainer of tlie seven astonislied disciples, and gave tliem bread and fisli, as He had doubtless often done on former occasions, and perliaps at the same place. He doubtless meant to give the disciples one more plain proof that He had risen from the dead. Alone by the Sea of Galilee, in the open air, far from the fear of interruption, in broad daylight, He eats and drinks at a social meal. Could these seven men ever doubt from that day, if they had doubted before, that Jesus rose from the dead ? He meant, furthermore, to encourage them to continue looking to Him, as they had done before, as a loving, familiar, sympa- thizing friend. Though risen, He would have them see prac- tical proof that He could be touched with the feeling of their infirmities, and cared for their bodies as well as their souls. He meant, not least, to remind them of His great miracle of feed- ing the multitude with a few loaves and fishes. He would freshen their memory of that wondrous miracle, and show them that He would continue doing for them what He had for- merly done for those who followed Him in the wilderness.
Chrysostom here remarks, that we are not directly told that Jesus ate with the disciples, but that it is probable from Luke's words in Acts i. 4, that He did. " How," he remarks, " it is not ours to say. These things came to pass in too strange a manner. His nature did not even need food. It was an act of condescension in proof of the resurrection." (See Gen. xviii. 8.)
14. — {^This is noio the third time, etc.] In this verse St. John winds up the wonderful story he has just told, by one of his peculiar parenthetical comments. Concerning the meaning of the expression " third time," there has been, in my judgment, much needless dispute. No doubt it is perfectly true that this was not literally the third time that our Lord was seen by any one after His resurrection. On the contrary, we know of at least six different appearances before this one : viz. (1) to Mary Magdalene, (2) to Joanna and other women, (o) to Simon Peter, (4) to two disciples going to Emmaus, (5) to ten Apostles to- gether, (6) to the eleven, for the special benefit of Thomas. — But it is no less true that this is strictly and literally the third time that Jesus appeared to any number of the disciples gath- ered together. — And it is also the thi?'d day, as Augustine re- marks, that our Lord was pleased to appear at all. The first five appearances were all on the very same day when He rose from the dead. The sixth was a week afterwards, when He appeared to rebuke the unbelief of Thomas. And the appear- ance recorded in this chapter, though the seventh in number, took place on the third day only, that any one on earth saw Him after He rose.
The question now remains to be considered. Has the narra- tive contained in these fourteen verses any deep spiritual and allegorical meaning ? Were we intended to read the passage Bimply as a description of one of our Lord's appearances aftei